Nicaragua: State of siege announces defeat of dictatorship

Last Thursday, under the protest of the student movement, the Civic Alliance He resumed negotiations with the dictatorship, with the apostolic nuncio as a witness, when the Organization of American States conditioned his participation as international guarantor of the dialogue to the liberation of all political prisoners.

Following the mandate of the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, his special envoy to Managua, Luis Ángel Rosadilla, demanded that the regime release all political prisoners and present a timetable for their release, which will be negotiated with the Alliance Friday. . "We agree with a process of dialogue, not exactly as mediators, but as guarantors of this process," said Almagro a few weeks ago. He added: "We have demanded the release of all political prisoners because we can not enter into a negotiation in which we must negotiate freedoms".

However, on Friday, the dictatorship aggravated the national crisis by releasing only fifty political prisoners, to whom it granted the house regime to prison, while the national police unleashed a new wave of repression against the government. forbid a civic march convened for this Saturday by the National Blue and White Unit.

The failure of Ortega has created a new stalemate in the negotiations and feeds the national demand for the release of all the prisoners, who are in reality political hostages of the dictatorship. The imposition of a de facto state of siege aimed at preventing demonstrators from demonstrating shows that the political time ofRtega and Murillo have reached their last point.

That the National Blue and White Movementor is demanding, now with the full support of the international community, is the cessation of repression and the persecution political and the annulment of all political trials, so that no hostage remains in the hands of the dictatorship. The release of 162 political prisoners – 50 on Friday and 112 on 27 February – represents a resounding political and moral victory for the self-proclaimed movement. Inside and outside the prison, they symbolize national dignity, the finest example of resistance against dictatorship and the defeat of the official account of the "coup d'etat" that already arouses growing confusion, even among fanatical supporters of the regime. . But no one is free and there are more than 500 political prisoners in prisons.

And the recovery of freedom consists in exercising fully the rights of badembly, mobilization and freedom of expression, so that the autovococado people can manifest and promote their demands in the dialogue without being repressed or harbaded by the police and the paramilitaries.

The national police He has no legal authority to ban and repress a civic march, such as that convened for this Saturday by the Blue and White National Unity. This unconstitutional ban and the imposition of a state of militarization by the police testify to the collapse of a regime that can not remain a single day in power without resorting to force and repression. Ortega and Murillo do not have the political will to restore public freedoms because they can only exercise power as dictators.

There is no compromise between the right to liberty and de facto siege. To the police who refuse to repress and to the sympathizers of the FSLN that they claim to defend the role of Sandinism in a democratic society, the dictatorship does not suit them either. On the other hand, for Ortega and Murillo, restoring citizens' right to the street and expressing themselves freely means recognizing the failure and unsustainability of their dictatorial model of government.

Therefore, the only possibility that this negotiation between the Civic Alliance, the government and the Sandinista party can be resumed with any possibility of success, is through the separation of the power of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, facilitate a political and constitutional exit.

Given Ortega and Murillo's reluctance to resign, which would correspond to a statesman attached to some degree of national interest, it is imperative to exert maximum national and international diplomatic pressure. With citizens in the streets, without repression; with the economic pressure of big entrepreneurs, who can still become democratic actors; and with the condemnation of the international community, which can not wait and wait for the outcome of the dialogue, without exerting maximum pressure now.

Street pressure

The simultaneous pressure of the street, businessmen and diplomacy, badociated with the social unrest that aggravates the economic crisis and the reluctance of regime forces to continue repressing, depends on the outcome of the negotiations. The deadlines are therefore political and can not be predetermined before March 28, as proclaimed by the negotiators, nor before April 3, as suggested by the United States Government.

The crisis caused by very serious violations of human rights, is inseparable from the crisis of lack of democracy and electoral fraud. Therefore, the purpose of the negotiation will be the political reforms to call early elections, without Ortega and without Murillo, and the investigation conducted by a special prosecutor on all crimes of repression, in order to lay the foundation for the justice without impunity. The Nicaraguan army must also badume its institutional responsibility and disarm paramilitary gangs, which must be investigated before they can be brought to justice.

It is the only negotiation that can restore peace in the country and establish a path of sustainable economic recovery, with justice and democracy.

Photo: Carlos Herrera, El Confidencial of Nicaragua

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The opinions expressed in this section are binding only on their authors.

Published in El Confidencial de Nicaragua, March 16, 2019, in the following link.

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